CoulonDeux Sèvres

This large village just inside the Deux Sèvre Department on the River Sèvre-Niortaise
is listed as one of the prettiest villages in France, and it will not
take you long to see why. The village has great character and charm with
its busy waterside frontage lined with restaurants, shops and quaint
fishermen's houses. Everywhere there are painters eager to capture the
charm and colours of this delightful village. From alongside the quay
one can hire the traditional flat bottomed boats called "plates" with or
without a guide. Canoes and kayaks are also available for exploring the
tree-lined canals that branch off the main river.
Coulon is the capital of the Green Venice(Venice-Vert) which is the north eastern end of the Marais Mouille (Wet Marshes), which itself is a part of the Marais Poitevin,
the second largest wetland in France. In 869 it was known as Colunus
and there was a Gallo-Roman cemetery about 800m north from the village
on the edge of the Roman way to Angers. In 1868 near the old roman ford,
2 Celtic dugouts were discovered, and in 1883 three Gallo-Roman
sarcophagi were unearthed together with 4 small bronzes of Emperor
Constantine (306-337). Further roman artefacts were found at nearby Oulmes and can be seen in the church.
The Centre of the village is dominated by the church of St.Trinity,
which was founded in 830 by the monks of Charroux and took on the name
of St Sauvier in the X11 century. Earlier in the 9th Century it had been
called the Holy Trinity, and was ransacked by the Normans and then
rebuilt in the X1 century in Romanesque style. It was further restored
in the XV century, when the southern nave and side door were remade in
the Ogival Style. The Protestants set fire to the church in 1569 and the
bell tower had to be rebuilt in 1671.

Maison des Marais Mouilles. In this museum, housed in the old Customs
House where taxes were collected for the transport of goods, one can
discover the history of the wet marshes from pre-historic times, through
the periods of the draining of the marshes by the monks and later the
Dutch up to and including modern times. There are also sections on local
industries like; wood, fishing and farming as well as the ecology of
the marshlands.

Coulon is an ideal location to start to discover this intriguing area,
whether one chooses to explore by boat, on a bike, walking or for the
less mobile by car. Along the way one will encounter charming cottages
by the riverside, a dazzling array of flora and fauna, much of which is
rare and native to the marshes, but above all one will discover the
tranquillity that makes these lands so special.